Thanks so much for the warning, Coding Enthusiast.

Just to clarify, we're safe as long as we don't follow the link and download the software, correct? Is there any danger if you use a watching-only/offline signing setup?

How is this any different? A population has to accept the tax code, otherwise people risk tax audits, fines and penalties, or even prison time for tax evasion. You can't get around that by using BTC, at least according to current regulations. The same goes for engaging in fraud using virtual currencies. The CFTC has charged defendants for just that because their regulations cover Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Indeed, nothing on Bitrefill.

Visa gift cards would work too but those are prohibited on Purse. You can find some listings if you search but when you click through, the page is either removed or there's a message saying you can't buy the item. Purse also seems like a big fraud risk anyway.

No Walmart gas stations around here, either.


Seems like it. I'm thinking my best bet might be to find a trusted trader on this forum and swap for Paypal. You can buy Visa gift cards on Paypal.

"We're axing entire departments and laying off 50% of our entire workforce because we're desperate for cash, but you should come work for us!" Sounds like prospective hirees should look to Bitmain's competitors for work instead.

It's fascinating to watch this play out. Most people -- including myself -- had written off the possibility of Bitmain's demise because of their perceived profit margins and market share. Part of me is still skeptical, but it looks like the 50% number is real:

It would be impossible to tell one way or the other since Bitcoin and altcoins are correlated. If Bitcoin stops declining, so will altcoins. If altcoins stop declining, that's less selling pressure on the Bitcoin market.

I'm guessing altcoin sellers aren't the primary source of the bear market now that their markets are worth so little. Bitcoin has been in an obvious bear market for a year -- that's enough reason for price to keep falling regardless of altcoins. Either way, what you're saying applies equally to both markets: Eventually, everyone who wants to sell has sold. Then the price will start rising again. The question is when?

The only measure we really have for "low prices" is an 80-95% decline. Betting on much more at this point is a huge gamble.

The US government disagrees. The IRS has stated clearly that digital currencies like Bitcoin are defined under the law as property, which entails specific tax treatment. The CFTC has asserted that digital currencies are commodities subject to their regulations and a federal court has agreed with them. FinCEN has established that digital currency users are not defined as MSB under FinCEN regulations but that digital currency exchangers are money transmitters subject to AML/KYC regulations.

As you can see, Bitcoin already falls under many existing regulations. They can't regulate the Bitcoin protocol, but they can regulate Bitcoin users and businesses.

It sounds like the right decision was made. Exchanges can't be held responsible for the carelessness of their users. If there was no security breach to the exchange and other customers were unaffected, we should assume it was the customer's fault.

Exchanges should definitely improve their security options, though. It's not clear whether Park ever received the SMS messages confirming withdrawals from his account. I'd like to see exchanges stop offering SMS for 2-factor authentication and start mandating stronger standards like TOTP.

The markets have moved upwards together for many years now. So, that's a very long history of coincidences -- so many that you have to wonder if they're really coincidences.

There's no way to prove that the markets are completely independent. People just rationalize and say, "They must be independent because Bitcoin is volatile or speculative or a different kind of asset." But that doesn't prove anything. It's just rationalization.

Even strongly correlated markets don't move in lockstep all the time, so I'd take this recent separation with a grain of salt.

Are there any reputable sites that sell gas station gift cards for BTC? Things like Shell or ExxonMobil gift cards. I don't see anything listed on eGifter or Gyft and I'm trying to avoid P2P trading due to the fraud risk.

Any ideas? Thanks!

It might make it more volatile. It would remove seller liquidity from the market -- can't post sell orders if you've withdrawn your coins from the exchange! All else equal, this should drive prices up.

I'm really not sure how big this "Independence Day" movement is, though. I've seen it mentioned on Twitter a handful of times, but I don't know how much it'll affect the price.

Probably in the same place they were back then: In their computer chairs, grinding the online poker tables and talking shit on the internet. People were building a new world and they just watched it go by.

Who knows, maybe some of them came around to their senses. Maybe some of them are members of this forum now.

I suppose "cryptoeconomics" isn't really an established field yet.

They need experts who understand the coding, cryptographic and networking aspects, and also those who understand markets and economic design. These don't all need to be the same people. As you point out, even the top minds in this field probably aren't equipped or interested in all the aspects beyond code. The government is really good at recruiting brilliant people when it wants to. So, there's that too.

It's hard to know how much mining demand BCH created -- perhaps very little. Since it shares the same hashing algorithm as Bitcoin, it makes more sense to use obsolete Bitcoin mining hardware to point at BCH.

We do know that Bitmain holds significant cryptocurrency assets as a percentage of their total balance sheet. Here are their overall holdings from the past few years:

Going off their last quarterly numbers, their profitability from late 2017 and early 2018 has turned into major loss-making. Their losses have been magnified because they have had increasingly huge BCH holdings throughout this year's bear market. Then there was the whole ABC/SV hash war where they rented and redirected Bitcoin hash power to BCH while mining at a loss.

Bitmain has also been making very risky business moves like selling hardware extra cheap to undercut their competitors. There have been rumors floating around that they've nearly defaulted on debts to their chip supplier and therefore need to raise cash. These layoffs line up with those rumors, so I'm inclined to think Bitmain is really in trouble here.

Or rather, fiat money. A business of that scale with huge fiat overheads shouldn't be speculating as heavily on cryptocurrencies as they were. In particular, they became increasingly reliant on the success of Bitcoin Cash even as they promoted one side of a contentious hard fork.

They've also been making risky business moves like this to undercut competition at the cost of their own profits. That may be backfiring now.

The way I see it, Bitcoin is superior because it has a built-in algorithm to adjust mining difficulty towards the cost of production. This helps to guarantee the viability of mining, which in turn ensures the security of Bitcoin.

Although the Bitcoin market is more volatile in these early years due to speculation, its predictable supply and mining incentives will promote price stability in the future after mainstream adoption has taken place.

That's irrelevant. Channels based on commitment transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain are dependent on Bitcoin as part of the security model.


People like you! "Multi-signature contract" =/= "2-of-3 contract where LN factory holds 2 keys and can steal your coins"


What's your point? "Factories" don't "hand out payments" unilaterally. Updating channel state requires the signature of both parties in a bidirectional channel, otherwise the last state is settled to the blockchain. I don't see the problem you're pointing out here. Both parties can either agree to settle the channel, keep the channel open, or one side can unilaterally close the channel. 

Not having to broadcast every transaction to the blockchain is great!


That would be a bad thing if Lightning required trust or intermediaries. Since it doesn't, it lives up to Bitcoin's purpose. 

Like DooMAD pointed out, your argument boils down to this: "LN is too good, it makes Bitcoin look bad." That argument sucks.

You can make your own self-moderated threads where you delete posts made by spammers. They won't bother posting if you make it clear you'll delete their posts and you actually follow through.

Theymos already added two boards that are signature-free -- Ivory Tower and Serious discussion. As you'll find out, they aren't very active. Take from that what you will.

If you're into price speculation, the Wall Observer thread hides signatures and moves really fast.


I think so too.

You'll have a hard time buying with a credit card without giving up your ID documents (KYC). The fraud risk is too high for the broker since Bitcoin payments are irreversible. That necessitates KYC and also causes credit card transactions to have high fees. Bitstamp, Coinbase and CEX.io are a few options but they all require ID.

If you want to avoid KYC, look into P2P platforms like Bisq, Paxful or LocalBitcoins. You probably won't be able to use a credit card, though. You might be able to buy gift cards and trade those for BTC, but you'll have to trade them at a discount.

LN does use the Bitcoin network. In fact, its security model completely depends on it. That's how it solves the Byzantine Generals' Problem, by settling to the blockchain in case of dishonest or unresponsive parties.

Banks are irrelevant here since LN uses smart contracts, not trusted third parties.